


Making Mistakes

by IronWoman359



Series: Sanders Sides Platonic Week [3]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Comfort, Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, in which logan is an idiot but its ok because patton loves him and is down to help
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-20
Updated: 2018-11-20
Packaged: 2019-08-26 07:14:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16677040
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IronWoman359/pseuds/IronWoman359
Summary: Logan takes it upon himself to remind the other sides that it’s ok to not be perfect. But he’s not very good at taking his own advice, and it takes Patton to show him that.





	Making Mistakes

**Author's Note:**

> Realized I never uploaded the rest of these fics that I had finished from the Sanders Sides Platonic Week I took part in last year (and whoops I never even did any Royality, Thomas and Side(s), or LAMP. Whoops. Oh well, enjoy this anyway, but let it be known it is a year old and my more recent stuff is of a much better quality, haha.   
> -Taylor <3

Nobody was perfect. 

This was a clear and obvious fact, as far as Logan was concerned. While it was important to always push to be the best one could possibly be, becoming hung up on perfection was illogical and unhealthy. 

Unfortunately, that was easier said than done. 

Logan took it upon himself to be the realistic one among the group; to remind the others that perfection was unattainable and that it should not be a cause of stress or discomfort for them. He had first noticed the problem with Roman. The creative side was a perfectionist in every sense of the word, and it manifested everywhere from his own and Thomas’s personal appearance to his work. Logan couldn’t count the number of times he had gone to Roman’s room to help the prince out of a creative slump or remind him that in order for the idea to be as good as it could possibly be, they had to get an imperfect first draft out. Roman was hard to get through to sometimes, but with enough persistence, Logan was usually able to convince him that it was ok if he wasn’t always perfect. 

Poor Virgil practically lived his whole life in fear that he wasn’t good enough, and reminding him that he was both doing his job as best as he could  _and_ not holding Thomas back from accomplishing anything was sometimes a daily struggle for Logan. Virgil had made great improvements as of late, but on bad days, it was hard for him to shake the idea that he was nothing more than a mistake that needed fixing. On those days, Logan was more than willing to talk Virgil out of his cognitive distortions until the anxious side had calmed down. 

On the surface, Patton didn’t seem to struggle with perfection as much as the other two. He encouraged them with a kindness and empathy that Logan could not provide when either of them were feeling the weight of inadequacy. Often times the moral and logical sides would work together to help Thomas and the others, Patton providing emotional support and Logan sound reasoning for why mistakes were nothing to be ashamed about. But a few months after Thomas’s break-up, Logan realized that even Patton struggled with the feeling of not being good enough. The caring side was so intent on being positive for the others’ sake that he had completely suppressed his own negative emotions, which had had catastrophic effects for Thomas, as well as Roman and Virgil. Long after the incident had passed, Logan was still frustrated with himself for not realizing sooner how much distress Patton had been in. 

In fact, Logan got frustrated with himself a lot. 

He  _knew_  that perfection was unattainable, he  _knew_  that mistakes were a part of the learning process, and he  _knew_ that nobody could be expected to operate at their 100% best all the time. He knew all of this, and yet…

He sat at his desk, staring cross-eyed at the screen of his laptop. Everything was there, from the dreams and desires sent to him by Roman to Thomas’s business responsibilities, social commitments, personal health responsibilities, and the daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly schedules that he was constantly mapping out, updating, and improving. He’d been at this for hours now,  and he was still getting nowhere. The words were starting to blend together on the screen, and he had a headache that had started out small, but was quickly growing into a full, blown out migraine. He threw a glance at the time, and groaned inwardly. 

4:00am. 

Defeated, he closed his laptop and stumbled into bed, not even bothering to change into his pajamas before falling into a fitful sleep. 

The next morning, his alarm went off at 7:00am sharp, just like it did every morning. He hit the off button, but did not get up, opting instead to lie in bed and stare at his ceiling for awhile. His mind was still clouded from his late night, and he wanted so badly to just close his eyes and drift back into sleep. But no, there was a schedule to keep. 

Reluctantly, he sat up and swung his feet out of bed. He glanced around the room, and retrieved his tie from the floor where he had discarded it in frustration, sometime around 2:00am the night before. He slipped it on, vaguely aware that it was on crooked but not having the energy to care, and made his way downstairs. 

Logan could smell biscuits in the oven as he made his way into the kitchen, and Patton was stirring a pot of gravy, a plate of sausage patties steaming on the counter next to him. He looked up from his cooking as Logan entered, but the smile froze on his face as he took in Logan’s rumpled clothes, crooked tie, and zombie-like stare. 

“Logan?”   


“Coffee…” was the only reply, as Logan haphazardly poured himself a cup of black coffee and sank into a chair. 

“Good morning to you too,” Patton said, his brow creased with worry. Logan sighed, and rubbed his eyes beneath his glasses. 

“Apologies Patton, I am simply-” 

“Tired. Yeah, I can see that,” Patton moved the gravy off the heat and sat down next to Logan at the table, peering into his eyes. “How much sleep did you get last night?” 

“Patton, please-”   


“How much?” Patton insisted, his dad voice creeping into his words. Logan sighed again, and stared down at his coffee.   


“Three hours,” he admitted, refusing to meet Patton’s gaze.  


The paternal side reached out and gently laid a hand on his forearm. 

“Logan…you can’t keep doing this to yourself,” he said, his voice barely a whisper. Logan shook his head, running a hand through his hair.   


“I have to get it all done, I’m so behind, I’m not doing enough. Without accountability, Thomas’s productivity will go down, he needs this done, he needs me, and I’m failing him-” Logan stopped, realizing what he’d said when he felt Patton’s grip tighten on his arm. He sighed, closing his eyes. “I apologize, I am letting cognitive distortions rule my thinking. I won’t let it happen again, I-”   


“Logan, shut up,” Patton said so abruptly that Logan actually did. “Now, look at me,” Patton continued, his voice in full-blown dad mode. 

Logan reluctantly turned to his fellow side, and was met with a stare that was somehow kind, loving and gentle, yet stern and forceful, all at the same time. 

“What do you always tell Roman, when he’s pushing himself to hard?” Patton asked, holding Logan’s gaze. 

“Uh…that total perfection is unattainable, and that all that can be expected of him is his best?” 

“Right,” Patton agreed. “And that your best on some days isn’t as good as your best on other days, and that’s ok.” 

“I know, but-” 

“And what do you tell Virgil? When he’s panicking because he thinks he isn’t doing enough for Thomas?” 

“I…I tell him that it is illogical for him to take all the responsibility for Thomas on himself,” Logan said quietly, looking down into his coffee again. “That there are four of us for a reason, and that he must not place the blame solely on himself if something that is not ideal occurs.”   


Patton nodded, and his dad face slowly softened, leaving behind a vulnerability that Logan rarely saw, but treasured each time he did, because it meant Patton trusted him completely. 

“And what do you tell me, when I try to hide away all the negative emotions, and act like everything is ok?”    


Logan nodded, feeling a lump growing in the back of his throat. 

“That all the parts of you are important, not just the parts you like, and that you have to take care of yourself, for your sake, and for all of us. Not just because we need your functionality, but…because we care,” Logan recited, refusing to look up again.   


Patton’s hand moved down his arm and took his hand. 

“Lo, look at me. Please.”   


Slowly, Logan met Patton’s eyes, and there was so much love shining in them that he thought it was a wonder that Patton didn’t cry all the time; he felt things so deeply. 

“You have to take your own advice, Logan,” Patton was saying. “Just because you’re logic doesn’t mean that you are the exception to the rule. It’s ok for you to make mistakes, it’s ok for you to have a bad day. Just please…acknowledge it when it happens. Let us know, don’t hide it all away. You need to take care of yourself too.”   


Logan nodded, and gave Patton a shaky smile. Patton returned the smile, but then a wave of sympathy crossed his face and he stood, pulling Logan up into a hug. 

“Oh, Logan honey, it’s okay,” Patton murmured against his shoulder, and it was only then that Logan realized that there were tears on his cheeks. 

He was crying. 

It would seem that the combination of stress, lack of sleep, and emotional fatigue was finally taking its toll, resulting in a chemical response from-   


Patton’s grip tightened, and Logan stopped his train of thought. He returned the embrace, grateful that the paternal side understood emotions so much better than he did. 

Nobody was perfect. 

But once in awhile, moments came close. 

And this moment, taking in Patton’s warmth and the smell of breakfast and the morning sunlight behind his eyelids, was about as close to perfection as Logan was likely to get. 


End file.
